


Stuck in the Past

by Marvelchinchilla



Series: Iron Dad and Spider-Son Oneshots [2]
Category: Avengers: Endgame - Fandom, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man: Far From Home, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Anxiety, Avengers: Endgame, Canonical Character Death, Could Be Considered Gen, FFH SPOILERS, Far From Home spoilers, Gen, Hurt Peter, Ig some stuff could be considered fluff, Ill put teen anyway, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Peter Parker is a Mess, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Sad Peter Parker, Tears, Time Travel, just pure angst tbh, weird time travel nonsense
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-10
Updated: 2019-08-10
Packaged: 2020-08-14 13:30:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20193073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marvelchinchilla/pseuds/Marvelchinchilla
Summary: It's been practically a year since the events of Endgame, and Peter Parker is finally starting to get on his feet after Quentin Beck nearly ruined his life. If only Morgan had known that before she travelled back to 2016 in a desperate attempt to see her dead father.





	Stuck in the Past

**Author's Note:**

> There's some parts that could be better, but this is more of a fan service for myself since I haven't seen many Peter Parker fics with this particular idea of travelling back in time. :)

“Morgan! Morgan, where are you?” Peter exclaimed, looking for his practically adoptive sister. They were playing hide and seek at the Avengers Compound, a building that had been rebuilt (in a new place) after the events following the blip (an odd name the world had dubbed Thanos’ snap as). Unfortunately, for a person with a spider-sense, Peter was hopeless on finding Morgan on the huge campus. 

Peter exhaled tiredly, ducking into one of the several doors lining the hall. Peter was starting to get into territory that the two had never ventured before, and it made him slightly anxious.

That anxiety was only worsened when he entered the room. It felt… wrong. It was like it had been left in the dust and abandoned for years, even though the new compound had only been up and running for eight months.  _ Wow, had it really been a year and a half since Quentin Beck had been up and running _ ? Peter winced at the memory of the dead man, who had nearly ruined Peter’s life. 

However, that post-death plot didn’t work out, since Peter had friends in high places (like Pepper Potts and Nick Fury). It also helped that he’s destined to become the future CEO of Stark Industries (something he wasn’t sure on still, but had accepted, knowing that Tony had all the faith in the world for Peter’s future). So, yeah, his identity reveal did happen, and kind of ruined any chance of privacy, but he wasn’t being hunted for a crime he didn’t commit. 

A sudden metallic clang rang in the room, followed by the sound of whirring engines. Peter yelped rather loudly (not that he would admit that). His spider-sense (no, not “Peter tingle”) didn’t alert him of any imminent danger. Still, Peter found his hand immediately going for his web shooters, which had been on from his earlier patrol of the city. They also were a sort of security blanket, especially after he created a way to embed the iron spider suit into them. It was pretty convenient if somebody tried to attack out of nowhere (which was oddly common nowadays). 

“Morgan?” Peter asked tentatively, debating whether he should activate the suit or not. The whirring increased in volume, and suddenly the room was doused in blinding light. Peter’s eyes immediately teared up, and he closed them until he decided the light assaulting his senses would do no further harm. When they opened, they immediately landed on the same machine Mr. Rogers had used to bring the infinity stones back to their original timelines. 

What made that sudden realization worse was seeing his six year old sister flipping a bunch of important looking switches on it. Peter had no doubt that the young genius knew exactly what she was doing, though she was still a child, so her judgment wasn’t always the most factually informed. Not that that was a bad thing. Most of Peter’s decisions, even now (on occasion), were influenced by his emotions. 

“Morgan! Turn it off,” Peter exclaimed, holding out his hands as if Morgan was arming a bomb. Except, that had already happened, a month or two ago. That’s a different story for a different time, however. 

“I-I just want to see ‘im,” Morgan mumbled, not even pausing. Peter noted the vials of Pym particles in her hand. There was enough for one full trip for one person. He kept edging toward the girl, focusing intently on her. 

Suddenly, Morgan stopped flicking switches. She turned toward Peter like she was contemplating something, before shaking her head and whirling on her heels. Peter’s heart dropped as he sat paralyzed and watched her run toward the platform, which had started to cave in on itself. Morgan looked down, compass in hand and an Ant-Man tech belt on, before she jumped into the void. “Morgan!” Peter screamed as he watched his sister vanish into the quantum realm. 

“Oh my god, oh my god. Pepper’s gonna  _ kill _ me,” Peter muttered, racing toward one of the belts like the one Morgan had on. Hank Pym had discovered a way to shrink people without an Ant-Man suit, which had been a good idea a few months ago, but now seemed like an idea that was meant to cause Peter trouble.

He couldn’t focus on his incredibly bad luck, however, as he grabbed a singular Pym particle capsule and time compass, and followed his sister into the abyss.

  
  


***

  
  


When Peter landed, he wasn’t pleased to realize it was inside a dumpster. “What the hell, man?” Peter groaned, swimming through the pile of trash to the edge. He hopped out of the bin, brushing off the trash like he was a huge germaphobe. He wasn’t, thankfully, otherwise all of the times he fell into a garbage bin (which was way too often) would have been 20 times more miserable.

Once Peter brushed himself off the best he could, he glanced around the alley he seemed to have landed in. The distant sounds of honking horns and bustling city streets filled Peter’s ears, intensified by his enhanced senses. “Morgan?” Peter asked desperately. There was something wrong about where he was, but maybe it was just the difference in time. 

The rustling of paper alerted Peter, and he glanced down to see a newspaper fluttering slightly in the breeze that had managed to reach the alley. He frowned, crouching down to read the date. The headline was titled “Sokovia Accords: Good or Bad?”, and underneath it, the year was 2016. A quick glance at the month informed him that it was four months after the events in Berlin.

“Well, shit.” Morgan knew where Tony was. She had studied the blueprints of the old Avenger’s Compound, and Peter knew that she had committed it to memory. “Ugh, this makes my life way more difficult.”

Peter dug his hand through his pocket, locating his glasses quite quickly. He wasn’t sure if they would work, but put them on anyway. “Edith?” Peter asked hesitantly, tapping the side of the glasses. Immediately, his vision was filled with text and blue outlining, and Peter let out a sigh of relief. 

“How may I help you, Peter?” The AI responded, though her voice wasn’t emotion filled like Karen’s normally was.

“Locate Morgan Stark.”

“My servers seem to be outdated. This may take a moment.” Peter nodded nervously, before beginning to walk toward the exit of the alley. Edith didn’t speak until he had reached the bustling road. He looked around, spotting Avengers Tower, which (by this time) had been sold to someone else. “Morgan Stark located.”

“Okay, uh, set destination?” 

“It will take you 45 minutes if you swing as far as you can go before getting a taxi or bus.”

“Damn. Okay. Seriously, how could that girl already be close to the compound?”

“Miss Stark is-”

“It was a rhetorical question, Edith.” The AI quieted, and Peter slunk back into the darkness of the alley, activating his Spider-Man suit. The gleam of metal rushed over his skin, and soon he was encased in a suit made with nanotechnology. His fingers quickly found their way to a control panel he had installed a few weeks after Europe, and instructed the tech to go retroreflective. There was no knowing how his presence could impact this timeline, especially if he runs into himself or somebody takes a picture of his suit.

With one more quick glance to make sure he was practically invisible, Peter swung off toward Avengers Compound, in the hope of finding his sister.

***

“Are you sure she’s in there?” Peter asked Edith with a dread-filled voice. He currently sat in the shade of some trees, just outside the surveillance system of the compound. His Iron Spider suit was tucked back into his web shooters, which still sat on his wrists. 

“Morgan Stark lifesign is detected within the compound. Shall I stage an assault?”

“No! No no no!” Peter exclaimed. This wasn’t the first time Edith had asked something like that, but Peter could never get used to the AI’s apparent need for violence. “I’ll figure something out,” Peter mumbled, stuffing the glasses into his pocket. Though he had become quite protective of the glasses, being seen with them could also set off red flags within 2016. 

Steeling himself, Peter started toward the compound. He came in the way that Happy had brought him by that one time right after the Vulture, hoping that he didn’t look as suspicious as he felt. 

Surprisingly, Peter wasn’t stopped from strolling straight through the front doors. “Hello, Peter. Boss isn’t expecting you,” An irish voice filtered through the large room. Peter jumped for a moment, before relaxing.

“Oh, it’s just you, Friday.”

“Are you okay, Peter? You seem tense.”

“Wha-what? I-I’m not tense at all! Ha hahh,” Peter claimed, smiling awkwardly. Friday didn’t respond for a moment, and Peter was sure he was caught. Thankfully, though, her next response was pretty dismissive.

“If you say so. Boss is in his workshop in the basement.”

“Thanks, Fri.”

“You’re welcome, Peter.”

Peter scurried off in the direction of Tony’s lab, before turning toward the room that Tony had insisted he got at the compound, even if he wasn’t an official Avenger. He ducked inside, ignoring the horribly outdated decorations (minus the Star Wars sets scattered around), and ordered Friday to turn off her surveillance in his room. 

Once that was taken care of, he pulled out his glasses, and threw them onto his face. “Edith? Get me a location on Morgan Stark. I need to get out of here as soon as possible.” The grid that outlined everything in front of Peter suddenly branched out to show part of the compound’s blueprints.

“Morgan Stark is located in the main lab in the basement, lab 1A. Should I stage an assault?”

“No! Stop with the assaults, would you?”

“As you wish.” Peter paused for a moment, processing Edith’s words. His stomach plummeted when he realized which lab Morgan was in. Tony’s. The same lab that the man himself was in. Well, shit.

***

Tony Stark, the great Iron Man, and the savior of the entire universe, had been dead for what felt like years of Peter’s life. It was more like one, but his mentor had left an irreversible gap in his life. So, on the way to see his dead mentor, all Peter could see was Tony dying before his eyes over and over again, just like he had for weeks after his death.

Unlike Morgan, Peter didn’t get the luxury of just hearing of his father-figure’s death. He lived it. He saw the light leave Tony’s eyes. He saw Pepper break down after Tony’s heart no longer beat. Peter witnessed all of the hope in his life vanish without a second thought. What  _ was _ life without Tony Stark? How could he live like he had something going for him? Those were the questions that had plagued Peter for months, even after the nightmares had gone down. Beck, however, had started those nightmares up again, and so the questions were reborn.

It had been a tough time for Peter. He, with the help of his girlfriend MJ, had picked up the scattered pieces of his life slowly after that fall. He got better. He just wasn’t sure if he would relapse when he saw Tony, alive and well.

“Peter? You’ve been standing outside of Boss’ lab for ten minutes.” This time, Peter didn’t flinch at Friday’s familiar voice, savoring it like a forgotten memory.

“I was just thinking.”

“Would you like me to open the lab door?”

“Go ahead, Fri.” His confirmation was followed by the “woosh” of the door sliding open. Peter took a deep, grounding breath, before walking through the doorway. Immediately, the sound of AC/DC graced his ears, and he smiled at the familiarity. However, the music was quiet, so Tony was either speaking with someone, or Friday had turned it down to suit Peter’s sensitive hearing.

The former quickly proved to be the case when he spotted a pouting Morgan Stark, who sat on one of Tony’s leather couches that Peter had convinced him to buy a lifetime ago. Peter followed Morgan’s eyeline to see Tony, sitting at one of his workbenches. A hologram sat in front of him, with a missing persons database pulled up. Clearly, Tony either didn’t believe that Morgan was his child, or Morgan never mentioned it, and was playing the role of a little girl who lost her family.

Honestly, Peter hoped it was the latter, because that would be much easier to explain. Peter edged forward, watching the uncomfortably young, though much more unhappy, Tony Stark scour the missing persons database for any “Morgan”s. 

“Peter!” Morgan’s young voice exclaimed, and Peter only had his spider sense to tell him that Morgan had launched herself at him. He turned just in the nick of time to catch her in his arms. He smiled softly at his sister, scanning her for any injuries. Other than a few scuffs of dirt on her clothes and skin, she was free of any scrapes or bruises.

“Em, you can’t just sneak off in the middle of hide-and-seek,” Peter scolded Morgan, using a nickname he had adopted for her not long after he had met her. It was simply the abbreviation of Morgan (“M”), but it was special to him and her.

“I know, I’m sorry. I just wanted to see ‘im,” Morgan mumbled, burying her face into Peter’s shirt. He sighed exhausedly.

“Pete?” A shiver ran down Peter’s spine, and he turned to look at Tony Stark. His not-so-dead-but-dead father figure, who stood feet away from him.

“To- Mister Stark.” Tony’s eyebrows furrowed at Peter’s near namedrop. Inwardly, Peter was cursing himself, since he hadn’t ever called Mr. Stark “Tony” until his death. A flash of a memory raced past Peter’s vision, dead eyes staring back at him. Then, a grave with a broken Iron Man suit and a skeleton reaching toward him. Peter took an involuntary step back right as Tony stepped forward. A confused and hurt look crossed Tony’s face, and Peter looked down guiltily.

Morgan still sat in his arms, and Peter could tell she was nodding off. It had been hours since the young girl had slept, and she was destined for a nap soon. 

“Uh, I’m going to bring her to my ol- my room. Then I’ll answer any questions you have.” Peter turned to leave, but before he could make it out the door, he was stopped by Tony’s voice.

“Who is she?” Peter wasn’t sure why a question as simple as that made his heart clench, but it did. Maybe it was remorse for Morgan, who could never see her father as the man she knew. The man who knew that she was his daughter, and was eternally changed because of it.

“Morgan. Morgan Stark,” Peter responded quietly, before disappearing upstairs.

  
  
  


Once Morgan was situated, and Peter had readied himself for the plethora of questions Tony was destined to ask, Peter entered Tony’s lab. Thankfully, the music was still on, but it had changed to Metallica in the time Peter was gone.

Peter looked at Tony, who was hunched in one of his more comfortable chairs at a table. A chair sat across from him, but Peter didn’t move to sit down in it. “Sit,” Tony said, gesturing toward the chair.

“I’d rather stand.” That simple statement seemed to confirm any of the turmoil within his old mentor’s brain. Tony’s eyes locked with Peter’s, but as soon as Peter saw the light within them, he turned away. 

“You look older than the last time I saw you, Peter.”

“You say that as if it’s a question. I know that you’ve already studied all you can about me, even in the short time I’ve been gone.”

“Currently, you’re at home listening to music while browsing reddit. So, how can you be here?” Peter turned to look at Tony then, a slight sad smile gracing his lips. This was the moment Peter decided to change everything. To make a world in which Tony Stark lived. A world in which Natasha Romanoff never had to sacrifice her life. He lifted his hand, and showed the compass.

“Am I supposed to know what that is?” Tony asked gruffly.

“No. 2016 doesn’t have this technology available yet.”

“You say that as if the future does.” Tony knew exactly what Peter was insinuating, but still strung along the conversation. Maybe Tony wasn’t as sure about the whole time travel thing as Peter had assumed.

“2023, yes.”

“And I’m supposed to believe that you’re from 2023? How do I know you aren’t Peter Parker?”

“The first time you told me to be an Avenger, I told you I wanted to stick to being a friendly neighborhood spiderman. The second time you told me I was an Avenger, I was on my way to my death. The third time you told me to be an Avenger, you weren’t even there.” Tony seemed to think over Peter’s words. Peter knew only the first event had happened for this Tony, but it seemed like the right thing to say.

“Are you an Avenger?”

“I am.” Tony grimaced at how coldly Peter uttered those two words, as if he was so indifferent to the phrase. Peter wasn’t indifferent, however. He simply took on that tone when talking about the Avengers to keep him from breaking down into a panic attack. He still wasn’t sure he was cut out to lead the team he grew up idolizing as a kid, so he distanced himself.

Silence fell over the two, disturbed only by the impossibly quiet rock music Friday had turned down yet again. “You look tired. Worse than me, and that’s saying something kid.” Peter nodded at Tony’s blunt way of putting it.

“These past two years haven’t been doing so well for me. Morgan’s the one who’s really been the light in this.”

“Morgan… Stark.”

“Yes.”

“A cousin I don’t know about?” Tony asked hopefully. Peter shook his head.

“A daughter yet to be born.”

“… My daughter?”

“Yes, and my sister.”

“I’m pretty sure I’m not your father, kid,” Tony joked. He was clearly trying to clear the tension in the room, and his thoughts running rampant through his mind.

Peter smiled softly at the attempt. “Not by blood. I wish that one time, I could have called you dad, though.”

“You say that as if I’m dead.”

Silence yet again filled the room. Peter tried to stop the stinging at the corners of his eyes. Tony had been dead for a year now, there was no reason to cry now. Peter had been through so much, he was much stronger than he was a year ago. He shouldn’t cry. 

Those unhealthy line of thoughts prevented the tears from welling up, and Peter looked over his shoulder, carefully avoiding looking at Tony. “You haven’t looked at me the entire time you’ve been here.” It was as if Tony had hit a dawn of realization. Peter could hear it in his tone.

“Let me start from the beginning.” Peter took a shuddering breath, walking over to one of the couches to collapse on it.

Peter started from the beginning, back in 2018. “So, one of the infinity stones, the time stone, belonged to a wizard-”

“A wizard? You mean like a Harry Potter, “Avada Kedavra” wizard?”

“More like a sorcerer. Anyway, Doctor Strange- yes, that’s his name -, you, and I made our way onto one of the Goons’ spaceships. Long story short, we landed on a planet called Titan, fought Thanos, Strange gave up the time stone to save your life, and Thanos snapped away half the universe. I was one of the people that disappeared during that time. The only difference was that I felt pain before I died, due to my powers.”

“You died,” Tony breathed out. 

“Basically. Once we were revived, however, it was just referred to as the blip.”

“Revived?”

“I’m getting to that.

“Anyway, maybe a week after the snap, Thanos was located. Half the team went on a mission to get the infinity stones from him, but he destroyed them before they had a chance to retrieve them. So, five years passed. You had Morgan a year after the snap, and you were happy. Well. I say happy, but Pepper still says that you weren’t the same with my, um, disappearance.” A sigh of relief escaped Tony’s lips.

“Pepper’s still alive?”

“She’s alive and well. Morgan is keeping her busy, as well as her teaching me how to run a multi-billion dollar company.” Tony blinked at Peter’s subtle mention of becoming the next S.I. CEO, but didn’t mention anything.

“So, back to my story. Eventually, Steve, Natasha, and Scott convince you to create a method of traversing time travel. You initially refused, but eventually caved, and-”

“I refused to create time travel?” 

“You had a family and a stable life. Nobody could blame you.

“It all worked out anyway, and you solved time travel. Everyone successfully went back on time. Unfortunately, Natasha sacrificed her life so Clint could get the soul stone.” Peter paused, glancing at Tony’s pained expression. “Do you want me to continue?”

“Keep going, Pete.”

“Uh, yeah. So, basically past Thanos found out about your plan, and travelled to 2023. Right before he showed up, Bruce snapped back everybody that was blipped, and almost died because of it. If that wasn’t enough, Thanos basically nuked this entire compound, and almost broke into the ocean.

“Uhm, and so the glove with the infinity stones kinda hopped around until you got ahold of it. ‘nd that was when…” Peter took a shaky breath, feeling the edges of a breakdown emerging. “Tha’ was when you… snapped your fingers.”

Tears streaked down Peter’s face. A flash of dead eyes flashed across his vision. A grave with a broken Iron man suit. A skeleton. Quentin Beck’s lifeless body. A grave. Tony’s funeral. A sobbing Pepper, who didn’t know that Peter was behind her.

Peter’s hands shook, and he reached for his pocket. He relaxed just a tiny bit at the familiarity of Edith beneath his fingers. “Peter?” Tony asked hesitantly, and Peter looked up to see the man not even a foot away, hand outstretched. 

“Y-y’know, it’s been a year. Since all tha’ happ’ned. When you… died in front of me. I-I don’t know how I’m still alive. Why am I even doing this? ‘M not cut out for this. After what happened with Beck-”

“Yes, yes you are. If I didn’t think you were, why do you think I made you the heir of S.I. after my death?

“I’m sorry for everything I put you through, and, fuck, I wish you had your perfect happy ending Peter. But, you have Morgan, you have Pepper, you have May. You’re doing just fine, Pete.” Peter then crashed into Tony’s arms, tears rolling down his cheeks.

Maybe Tony was right. Maybe everything would be fine. If anybody could pull himself back up, it would be Spider-Man. And Spider-Man is also Peter Parker.


End file.
